The Tragedy of Shining Armor
by thevacuousindividual
Summary: A parody of Shakespeare's Macbeth in MLP format. A brave general of Crystal Empire named Shining Armor receives a prophecy from a trio of prophesying unicorns that one day he will become King of Crystal Empire. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Shining murders King Sombra and takes the Crystal throne for himself. His guilt and paranoia kicks in.
1. Dramatis Personae

**Dramatis Personae**

Sombra, King of Crystal Empire

Lunare, Umbra, his sons

Shining Armor, Flash Sentry, generals of the King's army

Blueblood, _Flavien de Los,_ Fancy Pants, _Ablaze, Break Neck, Star Shine_ , noblemen of Crystal Empire

Fire Blaze, son to Flash

Celestro, Earl of Canterlot, general of the Canterlot forces

Young Celestro, his son

Full-of-Luck, an officer attending on Shining

Boy, son to Blueblood

A Canterlot Doctor

A Crystal Doctor

A Captain

A Porter

An Old Man

 _Lady Gleaming Armor_

Lady Blueblood

Gentlemares attending on Lady Armor

Chrysalis

The Unicorn Witches

Lords, Gentlecolts, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers,

Attendants, and Messengers; the Ghost of Flash, and other Apparitions

* * *

 **Note** : _Italicized_ names means these characters are the Rule 63 counterparts of their originals to fit for the story's characters.

Original/Rule 63

Fleur de Lis/Flavien de Los

Wildfire/Ablaze

Fleetfoot/Break Neck

Twilight Velvet/Star Shine

Shining Armor/Gleaming Shield (Armor) - She is an addition.


	2. A1, S1

Scene I. A desert place.

Thunder and Lightning. Enter three witches.

FIRST UNICORN

When shall we three meet again?

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

SECOND UNICORN

When the hurly-burly's done,

When the battle's lost and won.

THIRD UNICORN

That will be ere the set of sun.

FIRST UNICORN

Where the place?

SECOND UNICORN

Upon the heath.

THIRD UNICORN

There to meet with Shining.

FIRST UNICORN

I come, Singe.

SECOND UNICORN

Grimbroke calls.

[THIRD UNICORN]

Anon.

ALL

Fair is foul, and foul is fair,

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

They Exit.


	3. A1, S2

SCENE II. A camp near Redbank.

Alarum within. Enter King Sombra, Lunare,

Umbra, Ablaze, with Attendants, meeting a bleeding

Captain.

SOMBRA

What bloody man is that? he can report,

As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state.

LUNARE

This is the sergeant

Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought

'Gainst my captivity. -Hail, brave friend!

Say to the King the knowledge of the broil

As thou didst leave it.

CAPTAIN

Doubtful it stood,

As two spent swimmers that do cling together

And choke their art. The merciless Iron Blade

(Worthy to be a rebel, for to that

The multiplying villainies of nature

Do swarm upon him) from the Trotting Isles

Of kerns and [gallowglasses] is supplied;

And Fortune, on his damned [quarrel] smiling,

Showed like a rebel's whore. But all's too weak;

For brave Shining (well he deserves that name),

Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel,

Which smoked with bloody execution,

Like valor's minion, carved out his passage

Till he faced the slave;

Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,

Till he unseamed him from the nave to th' chops,

And fixed his head upon our battlements.

SOMBRA

O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman!

CAPTAIN

As whence the sun 'gins his reflection

Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders [break'],

So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come

Discomfort swells. Solarea, King of Crystal Empire, mark;

No sooner justice had, with valor armed,

Compelled these skipping kerns to trust their heels,

But the Trottingham lord, surveying vantage,

With furbished arms and new supplies of men,

Begin a fresh assault.

SOMBRA

Dismayed not this our captains, Shining and Flash?

CAPTAIN

Yes, as sparrow eagles, or the hare the lion.

If I say sooth, I must they were

As cannons overcharged with double cracks,

So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.

Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds

Or memorize another Golgotha,

I cannot tell-

But I am faint. My gashes cry for help.

SOMBRA

So well thy words become thee as thy wounds:

They smack of honor both. -Go, get him surgeons.

[The Captain is led off by Attendants]

Enter Ablaze and Break Neck

Who comes here?

LUNARE

The worthy Thane of Maneluck.

BREAK NECK

What a haste looks through his eyes!

So should he look that seems to speak things strange.

ABLAZE

God save the King.

SOMBRA

Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane?

ABLAZE

From Hurst, great king,

Where the Trottingham banners flout the sky

And fan our people cold.

Trottingham himself, with terrible numbers,

Assisted by that most disloyal traitor,

The Thane of Crystal Empire, began a dismal conflict,

Till that Bellmare's bridegroom, lapped in proof,

Confronted him with self-comparisons,

Point against point, rebellious arm 'gainst arm,

Curbing his lavish spirit. And to conclude,

The victory fell on us.

SOMBRA

Great happiness!

ABLAZE

That now Cold Steel,

The Trottingham's king, craves composition.

Nor would we deign him burial of his men

Till he disbursed at Saint Fairthrough's Inch

Ten thousand bits to our general use.

SOMBRA

No more that Thane of Crystal Empire shall deceive

Our bosom interest. Go, pronounce his present death,

And with his former title greet Shining.

ABLAZE

I'll see it done.

SOMBRA

What he hath lost, noble Shining hath won.

They Exit.


	4. A1, S3

SCENE III. A heath near Redbank.

Thunder. Enter the three Unicorns

FIRST UNICORN

Where hast thou been, sister?

SECOND UNICORN

Killing swine.

THIRD UNICORN

Sister, where thou?

FIRST UNICORN

A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap,

And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd:-

'Give me,' quoth I:

'Aroint thee, witch!' the rump-fed ronyon cries.

Her husband's to Hoofington gone, master o' the Serpent:

But in a sieve I'll thither sail,

And, like a rat without a tail,

I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.

SECOND UNICORN

I'll give thee a wind.

FIRST UNICORN

Thou'rt kind.

THIRD UNICORN

And I another.

FIRST UNICORN

I myself have all the other,

And the very ports they blow,

All the quarters that they know

I' the shipman's card.

I will drain him dry as hay:

Sleep shall neither night nor day

Hang upon his pent-house lid;

He shall live a man forbid:

Weary se'nnights nine times nine

Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:

Though his bark cannot be lost,

Yet it shall be tempest-tost.

Look what I have.

SECOND UNICORN

Show me, show me.

FIRST UNICORN

Here I have a pilot's hooves,

Wreck'd as homeward he did come.

Drum within

THIRD UNICORN

A drum, a drum!

Shining doth come.

ALL

The weird sisters, hand in hand,

Posters of the sea and land,

Thus do go about, about:

Thrice to thine and thrice to mine

And thrice again, to make up nine.

Peace! the charm's wound up.

Enter SHINING and FLASH

SHINING ARMOR

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

FLASH SENTRY

How far is't call'd to Redbank? What are these

So wither'd and so wild in their attire,

That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,

And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught

That man may question? You seem to understand me,

By each at once her chappy hooves laying

Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,

And yet your beards forbid me to interpret

That you are so.

SHINING ARMOR

Speak, if you can: what are you?

FIRST UNICORN

All hail, Shining! hail to thee, thane of Jestercourt!

SECOND UNICORN

All hail, Shining, hail to thee, thane of Crystal Empire!

THIRD UNICORN

All hail, Shining, thou shalt be king hereafter!

FLASH SENTRY

Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear

Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth,

Are ye fantastical, or that indeed

Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner

You greet with present grace and great prediction

Of noble having and of royal hope,

That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not.

If you can look into the seeds of time,

And say which grain will grow and which will not,

Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear

Your favours nor your hate.

FIRST UNICORN

Hail!

SECOND UNICORN

Hail!

THIRD UNICORN

Hail!

FIRST UNICORN

Lesser than Shining, and greater.

SECOND UNICORN

Not so happy, yet much happier.

THIRD UNICORN

Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:

So all hail, Shining and Flash!

FIRST UNICORN

Shining and Flash, all hail!

SHINING ARMOR

Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:

By Stetford's death I know I am thane of Jestercourt;

But how of Crystal Empire? the thane of Crystal Empire lives,

A prosperous gentlestallion; and to be king

Stands not within the prospect of belief,

No more than to be Crystal Empire. Say from whence

You owe this strange intelligence? or why

Upon this blasted heath you stop our way

With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.

Witches vanish

FLASH SENTRY

The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,

And these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd?

SHINING ARMOR

Into the air; and what seem'd corporal melted

As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd!

FLASH SENTRY

Were such things here as we do speak about?

Or have we eaten on the insane root

That takes the reason prisoner?

SHINING ARMOR

Your children shall be kings.

FLASH SENTRY

You shall be king.

SHINING ARMOR

And thane of Crystal Empire too: went it not so?

FLASH SENTRY

To the selfsame tune and words. Who's here?

Enter FLAVIEN and ABLAZE

FLAVIEN DE LOS

The king hath happily received, Shining,

The news of thy success; and when he reads

Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,

His wonders and his praises do contend

Which should be thine or his: silenced with that,

In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day,

He finds thee in the stout Trottingham ranks,

Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,

Strange images of death. As thick as hail

Came post with post; and every one did bear

Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,

And pour'd them down before him.

ABLAZE

We are sent

To give thee from our royal master thanks;

Only to herald thee into his sight,

Not pay thee.

FLAVIEN DE LOS

And, for an earnest of a greater honour,

He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Crystal Empire:

In which addition, hail, most worthy thane!

For it is thine.

FLASH SENTRY

What, can the devil speak true?

SHINING ARMOR

The thane of Crysal Empire lives: why do you dress me

In borrow'd robes?

ABLAZE

Who was the thane lives yet;

But under heavy judgment bears that life

Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined

With those of Trottingham, or did line the rebel

With hidden help and vantage, or that with both

He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not;

But treasons capital, confess'd and proved,

Have overthrown him.

SHINING ARMOR

[Aside]

Jestercourt, and thane of Crystal Empire!

The greatest is behind.

To FLAVIEN and ABLAZE

Thanks for your pains.

To FLASH

Do you not hope your children shall be kings,

When those that gave the thane of Crystal Empire to me

Promised no less to them?

FLASH SENTRY

That, trusted home,

Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,

Besides the thane of Crystal Empire. But 'tis strange:

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,

The instruments of darkness tell us truths,

Win us with honest trifles, to betray's

In deepest consequence.

Cousins, a word, I pray you.

SHINING ARMOR

[Aside]

Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.

[Aside]

This supernatural soliciting

Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill,

Why hath it given me earnest of success,

Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Crystal Empire;

If good, why do I yield to that suggestion

Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair

And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,

Against the use of nature? Present fears

Are less than horrible imaginings:

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,

Shakes so my single state of man that function

Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is

But what is not.

FLASH SENTRY

Look, how our partner's rapt.

SHINING ARMOR

[Aside]

If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,

Without my stir.

FLASH SENTRY

New honors come upon him,

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould

But with the aid of use.

SHINING ARMOR

[Aside]

Come what come may,

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

FLASH SENTRY

Worthy Shining, we stay upon your leisure.

SHINING ARMOR

Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought

With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains

Are register'd where every day I turn

The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king.

Think upon what hath chanced, and, at more time,

The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak

Our free hearts each to other.

FLASH SENTRY

Very gladly.

SHINING ARMOR

Till then, enough. Come, friends.

Exeunt


	5. A1, S4

SCENE IV. Redbank. The palace.

Flourish. Enter SOMBRA, LUNARE, UMBRA, FANCY, and Attendants

SOMBRA

Is execution done on Crystal Empire? Are not

Those in commission yet return'd?

LUNARE

My liege,

They are not yet come back. But I have spoke

With one that saw him die: who did report

That very frankly he confess'd his treasons,

Implored your highness' pardon and set forth

A deep repentance: nothing in his life

Became him like the leaving it; he died

As one that had been studied in his death

To throw away the dearest thing he owed,

As 'twere a careless trifle.

SOMBRA

There's no art

To find the mind's construction in the face:

He was a gentleman on whom I built

An absolute trust.

Enter SHINING, FLASH, FLAVIEN, and ABLAZE

O worthiest cousin!

The sin of my ingratitude even now

Was heavy on me: thou art so far before

That swiftest wing of recompense is slow

To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,

That the proportion both of thanks and payment

Might have been mine! only I have left to say,

More is thy due than more than all can pay.

SHINING ARMOR

The service and the loyalty I owe,

In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part

Is to receive our duties; and our duties

Are to your throne and state children and servants,

Which do but what they should, by doing every thing

Safe toward your love and honour.

SOMBRA

Welcome hither:

I have begun to plant thee, and will labour

To make thee full of growing. Noble Flasb,

That hast no less deserved, nor must be known

No less to have done so, let me enfold thee

And hold thee to my heart.

FLASH SENTRY

There if I grow,

The harvest is your own.

SOMBRA

My plenteous joys,

Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves

In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes,

And you whose places are the nearest, know

We will establish our estate upon

Our eldest, Lunare, whom we name hereafter

The Prince of Maretonia; which honour must

Not unaccompanied invest him only,

But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine

On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,

And bind us further to you.

SHINING ARMOR

The rest is labour, which is not used for you:

I'll be myself the harbinger and make joyful

The hearing of my wife with your approach;

So humbly take my leave.

SOMBRA

My worthy Crystal Empire!

SHINING ARMOR

[Aside] The Prince of Maretonia! that is a step

On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,

For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;

Let not light see my black and deep desires:

The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,

Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.

Exit

SOMBRA

True, worthy Flash; he is full so valiant,

And in his commendations I am fed;

It is a banquet to me. Let's after him,

Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:

It is a peerless kinsman.

Flourish. Exeunt


End file.
